Machines for feeding textile fibrous materials



Dec. 11, 1962 E. BARLOW 3,067,854

MACHINES FOR FEEDING TEXTILE FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 14, 195 9 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 11, 1962 E. BARLOW 3,067,854

MACHINES FOR FEEDING TEXTILE FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 14, 1959 4Sheets-Sheet 2 I llo'o'uun Dec. 11, 1962 E. BARLOW 3,067,854

MACHINES FOR FEEDING TEXTILE FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 14, 1959 4Sheets-Sheet 3 E. BARLOW 3,067,854

MACHINES FOR FEEDING TEXTILE FIBROUS MATERIALS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Dec. 11,1962 Filed July 14, 1959 {15 m NW NW mlull!lmilvlnnnlllnnrlll|||||||||||a lnlllimiualul lirlllnl heates haremassassin Patented Dec. 11, N362 3,067,854 MACHlNES FOR FEEDING TEXTHLEFIBROUS MATERIALS Eric Barlow, Sylvania, Sydney, Australia, assigns: to

T.M.M. (Research) Limited, Oldllam, England, a British company FiledJuly 14, 1959, Ser. No. 827,067 Claims priority, application GreatBritain July 22, $58 2 Claims. (Cl. 198- 53) The invention is concernedwith means for feeding textile fibrous materials, e.g. to the scale panof a weighing machine in which the pan is discharged intermittently,either when the contents attain a predetermined weight or at timedintervals after the desired weight has been fed into the pan, suchmachine being of the kind comprising a hopper having in its base anendless conveyor which is arranged to feed the material in the hoppertowards a spiked lattice by which the material is transported to thepoint of discharge into the scale pan or other receptacle or apparatus.

With the object of providing a more regular feed of material to thespiked discharge lattice, the present invention proposes automatic feedapparatus comprising an inclined or substantially vertical dischargelattice, a hopper adjacent thereto, an endless lattice forming the baseof the hopper, arranged with its upper course moving away from thedischarge lattice and its lower course moving towards the same so thatmaterial is withdrawn by the upper course from the stock contained inthe hopper and carried by the bottom course to the discharge lattice,the discharge lattice being arranged to strip the latter of material fedthereby from the hopper.

Said apparatus may include means within the hopper for operating uponthe material conveyed on the upper course of the bottom lattice tomaintain a constant rate of removal at any selected lattice speed. Thehopper may also contain guard means for holding material stacked thereinfrom contact with that fed to the discharge lattice.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, reterencewill be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate by way ofexample, a preferred embodiment thereof as applied to the feed apparatusof an automatic weighing and feeding machine.

in the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an eievational section through a machine for deliveringfibrous material in even quantities to the pan of a Weighing machine,RIG. 2 is a sectional View of the gear change mechanism by which thealternative feed rates are achieved, FIG. 3 is a diagram of the wiringcircuit employed with the apparatus, FIG. 4 is the view similar to FIG.1 showing the opposite side of the machine, FIG. 5 is a fragmentarysectional view on a larger scale, showing the construction of thelattice and other associated parts of the structure of the apparatus,and FIG. 6 is a section taken on the line VlVI of FIG. 5.

The machine comprises a hopper 1 into which fibrous material may be fedby hand or automatically. In the base of the hopper 1 is arranged anendless lattice 2 shown in dotted lines. The bottom lattice 2 is mountedon three adjustable rollers 2a, 2b and 2c, arranged to be driven in aclock-wise direction so that the upper course of the lattice 2 movesfrom left to right in the direction of the arrow in a substantiallyhorizontal path. The lattice 2 consists of an endless band carryingtransversely disposed slats or lags furnished with upstanding spikes 3inclined forwardly in the direction of travel to carry the fibrousmaterial towards the rear of the hopper. At the point at which the uppercourse of the lattice 2 turns about its guiding roller 2b to become thelower course, there is provided a duct 4. Said duct 4 is constituted bysheet metal plates it, 42 mounted by adjustable brackets 43, boltmounted, on the wall of the hopper. This duct 4 which is closely spacedto the spikes 3 of the lattice 2, encloses the rollers 2b and the lowercourse of the lattice 2 in such manner that material extracted from thebase of the hopper by the upper course of the lattice 2, is carriedthrough said duct by the spikes on the under course of said lattice.

The lattice 2 is composed of a fabric body 21, bearing cross-bars 22 inwhich are fixed spikes 3 and incorporating longitudinal leather drivingbands 23.

At the point where the upper course of the bottom lattice 2 enters theduct 4, a comb blade 5 arranged to swing to and fro in an arcuate pathabout its fulcrum 6, removes surplus material from the lattice 2 andpushes this back into the hopper, thus ensuring that an even quantity ofmaterial is carried round by the bottom lattice.

The bottom lattice 2 is associated at the forward end of the hopper withan inclined spiked lattice 11, shown in dotted lines. The lattice it,which is of similar construction to the lattice 2, is arranged to bedriven at a faster surface speed than the lattice 2 which has one legbetween the rollers 2a and 2c, arranged in a closely spacedsubstantially parallel path to the lattice ll, so that material isstripped from the bottom lattice.

The material in the hopper 1 is separated from the inclined lattice 11by a guard '7, thus the quantity of material taken up by the lattice 11is determined by the amount of material ted along the lower course of.the lattice 2 and is independent of the height of the material in thehopper. In this way the amount of material taken up by the lattice 11 issubstantially constant at any selected lattice speed.

Although in the preferred embodiment the guard 7 only prevents materialfrom contacting the lattice ll, it may, if desired, be extended to covera portion of the bottom lattice 2; moreover, the length of the bottomlattice 2 which can be covered by the said extension of the guard '7,may be varied to alter the bite of the lattice 2 on the material in thehopper. The adjustability of the guard 7 is readily accomplished by theprovision of adjustable brackets (designated in PEG. 5 and shown in thedotted lines in FIG. 1), bolt mounted on the wall of the hopper whilethe varying of the length of the bottom lattice 2 results from theprovision of adjustable brackets 206i (designated in FIG. 5 and shownalso in FIG. 1) which mount the rollers 2a, 2b and 2c.

The material taken up by the lattice 11 is presented to a second comb aand to a rotary stripping brush 3.2, by

which it is removed from the lattice spikes and fed as a substantiallycontinuous stream past a trap door 13 into a scale pan 14, which latteris arranged to be periodically opened by the operation of a rotary cam141 in well known fashion. The shaft carrying the cam 141 also carriestwo cycle-control wheels of which one is shown at 142. Said wheels carrycontact-members 143 which are arranged to actuate two switches SW/3 andSW/4 respectively. The scale pan 14 is balanced by a weighted arm 19which is pivoted on a knife edge 191 and carries the scale pan 14 at oneend and a balance weight 192 at the other end, the arrangement beingsuch that when the scale pan 14 is emptied, the arm 19 is moveddownwardly about its fulcrum 191 to close the switch SW/ 2, and when thescale pan 14 has been filled to a predetermined extent, the arm 19rises, opening the switch SW/Z and closing the switch SW/ 1.

The main shaft 16 is driven from the input shaft 15 through gearingenclosed in the casing 161. The comb 5 receives its pivoted motion aboutthe fulcrum 6 through the medium of an eccentric 163 (FIG. I) mounted onsaid shaft 16 and a rod 164. The shaft 16 also drives the comb 9 throughthe medium of an eccentric 165 (FIG. 4), the comb being caused tooscillate about its fulcrum 91 by the eccentric rod 166. Said inputshaft 15 is beltdriven from the driving-shaft of the carding machine.The feed brush 12 receives a constant speed drive from said shaft 15through a chain 121, a counter-shaft 122 and a belt 123. The spikedlattice 11 is driven by the shaft 16 through the medium of a sprocket31' a chain 31, a sprocket 32 and gears 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37, the gear37 being fixed on the lattice driving shaft 38. The arrangement is suchthat said shaft 16, as is shown in FIG. 2, is driven from the inputshaft 15 by either of two alternative gear-trains respectively giving anormal rate of delivery by the lattice 11 or a diminished rate as theweighing operation is almost concluded. The shaft 15 carries two spurgears, 151 and 152, which are respectively in mesh with pinions 171, 172which are loose on an intermediate shaft 17. An electro-magnetic doubleclutch 18, comprising electromagnetic windings 181 and 1153 which arerespectively attached to the gears 171, 172 and a clutch member 183supplying to the shaft 117 and capable of sliding movement to engagewhichever of the windings 181, 182 is energized, the eifect being toselect one or other of said gears 171, 172 to be clutched to the shaft17, which is connected to the lattice drive shaft 16 by gears 173, 162.That is to say, if the clutch is set to select the gear 171, the lattice11 will be run at normal feed rate; if the gear 172 is selected, thelattice 11 will run at trickle rate. The gear wheels 162, 173 are changeWheels and can be substituted by others giving a different ratio when itis desired to alter the speeds of the lattice 11 to suit particularproduction rates or blends of material. A gear 39 on the bottom shaft111 of the lattice 11 drives a gear 40 on the roller 20 of the lattice2, so that alteration of the speed of lattice 11 will give acorresponding alteration to the speed of the lattice 2.

The operation of filling a scale pan takes place in two stages, duringthe first of which a predetermined amount of material is fed by thelattice 11 and brush 12 at a high speed. Starting with an empty scalepan 14 and all switches in the positions shown in FIG. 3, starter switchSP is closed to supply curent to the primary of a transformer T/1 viaswitch SW/1 which is in the normal closed position. Relay RL/1 isenergized as it is connected to the secondary winding of the transformerT/1. The contact of RL/lt moves to the NO position, and a high speedclutch winding 181 is energized through the potentiometer RV/1, thusdriving the lattice 11 at high speed to deliver materials to the weighpan 14.

When the weight of the materials fed into the scale pan 14 has reached apredetermined value, the arm 19 is tripped, releasing, that is opening,switch SW/2 and there- Cir by deenergizing relay RL/l, the contacts ofwhich revert to the NC position. The high speed clutch winding 181 isthus deenergized and the low speed clutch winding 182 is energized viapotentiometer RV/2. The lattice 11 is now driven at a slow speed, andmaterial enters the pan 14 at a trickle rate. When the weight ofmaterial in the pan 14 has reached a desired total value, the arm 19operates the switch SW/l moving it from NC to NO position, deenergizingthe clutch winding 182 by breaking the circuit to the transformer T/land energizing the solenoid SOL, the function of which is to close thetrap doors 13 to prevent further feed of material into scale pan 14.This condition persists until the scale pan is open to discharge itscontents when the arm 19 releases the switch SW/l and again close theswitch SW/2 to recommence the cycle.

During the cycle the switch SW/4 is momentarily depressed by the cyclewheel 142 but without effect since the switch SW/l is then in the NOposition.

If however, the scale pan has not received its full contents when theswitch SW/4 is closed by the cycle wheel, in which case the switch SW/lwill be in the NC position, the relay RL/2 will be energised, andindicator lamps L, L -will be illuminated via the contact RL/2/2. Whenthe switch SW/l changes over to the NO position, the relay RL/2 remainsenergised via the switch SW/3, and the relay contact RL/2/1, so that thelamps L, L will remain lit. The relay RL/2 is re-set at each cycle whenthe switch SW/3 is momentarily depressed by the appropriate cycle wheel142 just before the actuation of the switch SW/4. Thus the arrangementgives a virtually continuous indication that the scale pan has not yetreceived its full charge, until the complete charge is received, whenthe switch SW/4 is closed.

The rotary brush 12 is preferably so located in relation to the lattice11 that when the brush first contacts the spikes of the lattice, thespikes are in radial alignment with the bristles or the like so that thefibrous material carried by the brush is stripped therefrom. Since thelinear speed of the bristles exceeds that of the lattice spikes, theyoperate to strip fibres from said spikes as successive rows thereof aredeclined away from the brush.

Although the preferred embodiment of the invention has been describedwith reference to an automatic weighing and feeding machine, theautomatic feed apparatus, may be used in any machine where fibrousmaterial fed into a hopper, is required to be delivered therefrom ineven quantities by a discharge lattice.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Automatic feed apparatus for textile fibrous materials comprising asubstantially upright discharge lattice, means for driving saiddischarge lattice, a hopper adjacent said discharge lattice forreceiving textile fibrous matea rials, an endless bottom lattice formingthe base for the hopper and incorporating an upper substantiallyhorizontal course extending away from said discharge lattice, a lowercourse extending downwardly and toward said discharge lattice and asubstantially upright course extending in a path parallel to andadjacent the lower portion of said substantially upright dischargelattice, means for driving said bottom lattice with its upper coursemoving away from the discharge lattice, its lower course moving towardsthe discharge lattice and its substantially upright course moving in thesame direction as said discharge lattice, said means for driving saiddischarge lattice and said means for driving said bottom lattice beingarranged for driving said discharge lattice at a greater surface speedthan said bottom lattice, the discharge lattice being positionedrelative to the bottom lattice for stripping the bottom lattice of thematerial carried along the upright course thereof, guard means forholding material stacked in said hopper from contact with the materialwhich is fed to the discharge lattice, and a duct enclosing the bottomlattice at the point of reversal of the upper course and along its lowercourse to the discharge lattice, said duct being spaced a limiteddistance from the surface of the bottom lattice to control the quantityof material fed to the discharge lattice.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein means are provided foroperating upon the material withdrawn along the upper course of thebottom lattice to maintain a regular feed of material and said meanscomprises a comb pivotally mounted in pendulum fashion adjacent the endof the upper course of the bottom lattice and is positioned to swingacross the lattice to remove excess material thereon.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS BakerDec. 22, Doak June 30', Decat Feb. 23, Bogaty Oct. 29,

FOREIGN PATENTS Italy Mar. 21, Germany Jan. 30*, Great Britain July 9,

